


When Things Are Bad, Better To Laugh It Off

by Annide



Series: 911 Weeks [3]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 911week2020, Angst and Humor, Gen, Murphy's Law, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25007716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annide/pseuds/Annide
Summary: The story of how Howie Han became Chimney.
Relationships: Howie "Chimney" Han & Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Howie "Chimney" Han & Tommy Kinard
Series: 911 Weeks [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808203
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	When Things Are Bad, Better To Laugh It Off

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 911week Day 3: "We can do this" + hurt

Fire was everywhere. It was beautiful in a way, the way it danced as it destroyed a family’s memories. The house they’d made their home, their possessions, their family pictures, all going up in flames. It was bright and it was hot. Too hot. There was no path through it. No clear way out of this living room. And it was quickly filling up with smoke. Fortunately, everyone who lived there had been brought out already. Howie was the last person left inside, he was hurt and his time was running out. The structural integrity of the house was threatened and it couldn’t be too long before it fell down on him. He needed an idea and fast.

The way to the entrance was blocked. The way to the kitchen would require him to jump from the top of the couch, which he couldn’t. Because he’d hurt his ankle. It felt like nothing more than a sprain, but it was enough to prevent him from climbing on pieces of furniture and propelling himself past the flames. He’d fall into them. The curtains were thick and closed, effectively putting a wall of fire between Howie and the window. He was backed away in the corner between the wall and the fireplace. The fireplace. He crawled to the front of it, looked in and realised, he was small, and he could fit through it.

“Tommy, are you still on the roof?” He radioed.

“Yeah, Howie. Do you have an exit?”

“I think I do. I need you to throw me a line down through the chimney.”

“What? You can’t fit through there.”

“I think I can. Besides, it’s my only option.”

“The exit up here is too small.”

“I can come up and help you break the top while Howie climbs.” Hen said.

“It’s fine, I can handle it.”

“You can hold him up and break a chimney at the same time? Are you sure?”

“I have to, I don’t know how long this roof can still hold. We can’t risk you coming up here. If something were to happen we need our best paramedic ready to save our asses.”

Howie laughed. He liked how much closer these two were getting. He had a rough start with Tommy, so did Hen, but the three of them made a pretty good team now. There was a lot of teasing involved, but it felt like the start of a good friendship. At least, Howie hoped it was, he could use more good friends. But that was if he could survive this fire.

Just as he was about to grab the line Tommy threw down for him and attach himself to it, Howie’s oxygen tank started beeping. He was out. He’d hoped to make it longer, but sometimes things just didn’t work out. He’d have to go up a chimney to escape a fire without any oxygen. He took a face mask out of his pocket to put on, so it would block at least part of the chemicals as he breathed through the smoke. Then he secured himself to the line and pulled to let Tommy know he was ready to start his ascent. It was slow. Usually, he would help himself with his legs more, but it was a lot less effective when one of them was out of use due to a sprained ankle. Not to mention that half of Tommy’s attention was on breaking the top part of the chimney to make a hole large enough for Howie to exit through. Pieces of rubble rained down on him as he worked his way up, but most were small and, with his helmet and protective glasses, Howie was in no danger of getting hurt by them. His radio, on the other hand, was taken out by a slightly bigger piece.

“Well, that’s just great.” Howie was starting to think it was a little ridiculous how bad this day was going. He yelled up at Tommy, but with the mask on his face and the destruction noise on the roof, he couldn’t be heard. So he took off his mask for a second and yelled as loudly as he could. “Tommy! Can you hear me?”

Clearly he could, because he stopped banging.

“Howie, is that you? Why aren’t you using your radio?”

“It broke.”

“Wow, you really aren’t lucky today.” Tommy laughed and Howie heard him yell out at the rest of the crew out in the street. “Hey, guys, we got a talking chimney over here!”

“Is he alright in there?” Hen’s voice carried surprisingly well. “Hey, talking chimney, are you okay?”

“It’s really hot in here.” Howie said, doubting anyone other than Tommy could hear him. He was taken by a fit of coughing. He really needed to put that mask back on. “I can’t see how far I’ve... how far I’ve made it. There’s too much smoke.” He hoped he’d gotten pretty high by now, because he had no idea how much longer he could endure this. “I can’t... breathe.”

He coughed again and put his mask back on. He couldn’t see his surroundings at all in there, but he could feel how unstable the chimney was starting to get every time he put his foot on it. The house was threatening to crumble around him, under Tommy’s feet. They would die here. Howie tried to take deep breaths, to center himself and stay calm. But even with that mask, he was breathing in more smoke than oxygen and it didn’t help. He was starting to feel panicked.

“I won’t make it, Tommy. You should go.” Howie managed to yell out. He was still climbing, but he was losing hope fast.

“No, we can do this, come on.”

“No, we can’t. You’ll have to let me go and... save yourself before the roof collapses under you.”

“I’ll be fine, chimney.” It was clear Tommy was trying to lighten the mood a bit. “Keep going, you must be getting close by now. We put a bag near the house so we can jump off as soon as you’re out.”

“I can’t jump. I sprained my ankle.”

“I’ll carry you if I have to, but we are not losing you today. Come on, I got you.”

Howie kept going. He even used his sprained ankle to help him go faster. It hurt, but it was nothing compared to the burn of the smoke in his throat. Then, finally, he reached the top. Suddenly, air reached his lungs, sun illuminated his surroundings and allowed him to see Tommy standing there on the roof, pulling him up. Then the line snapped and Howie felt himself fall back into the darkness, his arms reaching up to the sky in the hopes of grabbing onto something. Fingers wrapped around his wrists and stopped his descent.

“I told you I got you.”

Tommy pulled him up. It took Howie a second to find his footing while he removed his mask, but it didn’t matter, Tommy had him and he wasn’t letting go. Together, they walked as fast as they could away from the chimney toward the edge of the roof. They would’ve run, but Howie’s ankle made it impossible. The rest of the crew started hosing down the fire the second they jumped off. They both lied side by side on the bag, laughing as water rained down on them. Everything had gone wrong and, yet, here they were, alive.

After what felt like a while, but was probably only a minute, they rolled off, soaked, and joined Hen by the ambulance. Howie sat on the back step, letting himself be wrapped in a blanket. Before she could start her examination, he fell into another coughing fit. He watched the smoke coming out of his lungs and knew he had a trip to the hospital coming, probably at least one shift off too.

“Wow, you’ve truly become one with the chimney.” Tommy said.

“I’m just glad you made it out alive, chimney.” Hen teased, prompting him to open his mouth so she could take a look at the damage.

“Neither of you is gonna let this go anytime soon, are you?” Howie said. But he was smiling. Happy he got to share a moment like this with them again. Slightly embarrassed at the whole thing, but not dead.

“It was weird but great thinking to go out that way.” Tommy said. He gave him a pat on the shoulder and went back to help the rest of the crew finish up the call, making sure the fire was out and cleaning up.

“Come on, chimney, climb in, I have to get you to the hospital. You’ve inhaled a lot of smoke in there.”

Hen handed him an oxygen mask, hugged him and he settled on the gurney. He wrapped his own ankle while she drove. Hen and Tommy never stopped calling him Chimney. The nickname spread to the whole firehouse. It even remained after Tommy left. Howie got used to it, he kinda liked it. It showed their affection for him, and that call would always remain an important moment for him.


End file.
